Hello, New here. Just getting into large format printing.

[fairstreet ink]

Hello, Justin here. I've been a logo designer for several years now. I've been wanting to expand my business to offer large format printing--signs, banners, and outdoor decals to start. I've got a friend whom I've known for 15yrs, who runs a major construction business in our area, who wants to do a business partnership doing printing. We've got plenty of work lined up. I have the computer skills and some printing but, I'm stuck trying to figure out a printer ink type we want to use. Latex or Eco Solvent. I've even looked at used printers even though we have a large enough budget to buy new. It's a pretty big leap for me and I'm just not looking for headaches right out of the gate. I have a good idea about a cutter and laminator id choose its just the printer im stuck on. Any suggestions on a good starter printer? Thanks

 

[The Big Squeegee]

2 from OK

 

[rjssigns]

Find the dealer for Mutoh, Mimaki or Epson in your town with a good tech and buy from them. Fact. Period. End of discussion.

 

[fairstreet ink]

Find the dealer for Mutoh, Mimaki or Epson in your town with a good tech and buy from them. Fact. Period. End of discussion.

May I ask what your thoughts are on Latex vs eco?

 

[Stacey K]

Hi Justin! I like your logo

! I'm no printer expert, others will chime in. A few things you might want to tell us is what kind of signs will you be doing and what size? Sounds like a lot of construction type signs? If your friend has skytracks and lifts then you might end up doing some larger exterior signage?

Personally, I just bought a HP Latex 115 54". I'm a one person shop and I don't really do much outside installing. It's hard for me to handle sheets over 4x8 sheets by myself so I stick with that which is perfect for my 54" system.

I would definitely go with new. Sounds like you have some cash to spend but if you don't want to spend it you can get a loan through Grimco with like 1% interest with monthly payments.

 

[rjssigns]

Depends on your needs. High production? Running full rolls constantly? Nothing smaller than a sheet of paper etc...?
Note: I am biased towards eco-solvent. Mature technology that is mechanically simple(easy to fix)

From what some forum members stated Latex will not produce small text or small decals without graininess.
Maybe the newer rigs will but nobody is crowing about it so I assume nothing's changed.
No first hand experience to that end but several forum members found that out.
I don't like the loading of latex. Way too complex web path.
Some forum members have had issues with color match on repair panels with latex.


My Mutoh regularly prints 0.041" text that is nice and crisp.

Shops with the Epsons seem very pleased with the speed, quality and color.

Find the dealer(s) in your town and bring them your brutally complex files and a stopwatch. NEVER run their files.

 

[greysquirrel]

Epson s40 best bang for the buck

 

[fairstreet ink]

Hi Justin! I like your logo

! I'm no printer expert, others will chime in. A few things you might want to tell us is what kind of signs will you be doing and what size? Sounds like a lot of construction type signs? If your friend has skytracks and lifts then you might end up doing some larger exterior signage?

Personally, I just bought a HP Latex 115 54". I'm a one person shop and I don't really do much outside installing. It's hard for me to handle sheets over 4x8 sheets by myself so I stick with that which is perfect for my 54" system.

I would definitely go with new. Sounds like you have some cash to spend but if you don't want to spend it you can get a loan through Grimco with like 1% interest with monthly payments.

Thanks for your reply Stacey. We will be strating out with Banners, wraps and some decals. I've been leaning towards Latex but I'm also partial to the Epson S40. Even though they are on backorder, I still may choose epson.

 

[fairstreet ink]

Epson s40 best bang for the buck

Thanks for the reply Greysquirrel. I've leaning Latex but Ive also been thinking the Epson S40. I want better detail, and hopefully a more reliable machine. Plus the 220 power source with Latex was kind of a concern I didn't want to deal with.

 

[fairstreet ink]

Epson s40 best bang for the buck

Thanks for the reply Greysquirrel. I've leaning Latex but Ive also been thinking the Epson S40. I want better detail, and hopefully a more reliable machine. Plus the 220 power source with Latex was kind of a concern I didn't want to deal with

 

[mim]

We have the Epson s80600 and we like it much better than our old Roland. Great quality prints, can print white, prints fast and dries fast(ish).

 

[fairstreet ink]

We have the Epson s80600 and we like it much better than our old Roland. Great quality prints, can print white, prints fast and dries fast(ish).

I've been eyeballing those Epsons too specifically the s40 sto start but they seem to be on a lengthy back order. No Epson Surecolors in the USA for several months according to grimco. Thats a Bummer because we are ready to do several jobs right now.

 

[2 Friends Printing]

Welcome to the group Justin. We're a digital print shop that added Large Format a year ago because we were buying so much out. I went back and forth between latex and solvent before settling on an HP Latex 365 Printer and Cut solution. Some of the reasons for the decision included simple maintenance, inexpensive to change print heads, doesn't waste ink recycling it when not in use, local dealer support, no solvent odor. We went with the HP 365 because of it's ability to do double sided banners which we do a lot of. It was the perfect call for us. We've picked up a lot of label business this year as well so it's been great to have a separate offline cutter for production scheduling. Someone mentioned small type and lines on latex but ours looks great and there's never been any small type, which we do a lot of, that hasn't looked sharp. Best of luck to you!

 

[fairstreet ink]

Welcome to the group Justin. We're a digital print shop that added Large Format a year ago because we were buying so much out. I went back and forth between latex and solvent before settling on an HP Latex 365 Printer and Cut solution. Some of the reasons for the decision included simple maintenance, inexpensive to change print heads, doesn't waste ink recycling it when not in use, local dealer support, no solvent odor. We went with the HP 365 because of it's ability to do double sided banners which we do a lot of. It was the perfect call for us. We've picked up a lot of label business this year as well so it's been great to have a separate offline cutter for production scheduling. Someone mentioned small type and lines on latex but ours looks great and there's never been any small type, which we do a lot of, that hasn't looked sharp. Best of luck to you!

Thanks for the reply. Does the 365 print on front and back at the same time? I've wondered about that feature.

 

[2 Friends Printing]

Thanks for the reply. Does the 365 print on front and back at the same time? I've wondered about that feature.

No, you print Side A to the take up reel then reload the take up reel and print Side B. The printer prints a mark on Side A and then uses the built in
spectrophotometer to read the mark for positioning on the underside of the material when you've reloaded to print Side B. Vinyl banner material stretches some when printed and heated but the Flexi rip allows you to compensate for that on Side B. It takes a little practice but the positioning mark makes it much easier than trying to manually align. The built in spectrophotometer is also great for creating automatic ICC profiles for color consistency.

Forgot to say, when you tell the printer your printing double sided, it then recognizes if your printing Side A or B.

 

[fairstreet ink]

No, you print Side A to the take up reel then reload the take up reel and print Side B. The printer prints a mark on Side A and then uses the built in
spectrophotometer to read the mark for positioning on the underside of the material when you've reloaded to print Side B. Vinyl banner material stretches some when printed and heated but the Flexi rip allows you to compensate for that on Side B. It takes a little practice but the positioning mark makes it much easier than trying to manually align. The built in spectrophotometer is also great for creating automatic ICC profiles for color consistency.

Thanks for the details. I may rethink my 315 decision to a 365.

 

[2 Friends Printing]

Thanks for the details. I may rethink my 315 decision to a 365.

The 365 also gives you the ability to print 5' wide banners with seamed edges if you need that and is quite a bit faster than the 315. If you have the money I'd recommend considering it.

 

[fairstreet ink]

One more question. Where did you find the 365 print and cut solution? I just see the 365 as a stand-alone machine and not sold in a combo.

 

[Goatshaver]

Thanks for your reply Stacey. We will be strating out with Banners, wraps and some decals. I've been leaning towards Latex but I'm also partial to the Epson S40. Even though they are on backorder, I still may choose epson.

Welcome! Lots of great people and info here.

I started with an Epson S40600 a couple of years ago and I absolutely love it! I've had zero issues since my install, machines are rock solid.

 

[mim]

I see people selling Epsons second hand on here from time to time, maybe something will come up. Seems like everything sign related is backordered